"Why are we suddenly looking for an intern?"

Hearing this, my brother-in-law the director let out a sarcastic laugh. "Didn't HR just axe a whole bunch of our people?"

Seeing his expression change, Red Glasses immediately chimed in indignantly, "Exactly, 'employee optimization'—how did that end up optimizing us? They always need us to cooperate with their work, and now they turn around and burn the bridge after crossing the river… Actually, no, that's not even right. They haven't even crossed the river yet. I really don't get it."

The director brother-in-law waved a hand. "I talked to them. There's a new specialist over there trying to hit her KPIs, doesn't understand the ropes. She quietly blew things up until it reached the boss. At that point, not cutting people wasn't an option."

"But it's not all bad. In our department…" The director glanced outside. "There really are quite a few useless people. Usually it's hard for me to say anything. Since HR finally has someone clueless enough, I just went along with it and cleaned them out in one go."

At this, the director leaned back in his chair, relaxed. "Don't you feel the whole department's been a lot quieter lately?"

Red Glasses blinked. "Brother-in-law… you mean this is actually a good thing?"

It sounded like the director in front of her had simply used that overeager rookie in HR as a tool to purge all the dead weight he'd never been able to touch.

Using someone else's knife to kill, huh?

The director looked at his little sister-in-law who'd only graduated from college less than two years ago; the corners of his mouth lifted, but he didn't answer.

Red Glasses racked her brains for a while, sorted out the logic, and then asked, "Then why were you so mad earlier? You wouldn't even give HR any face, said you weren't going to cooperate with their optimization this time…"

The director flicked his hand. "I've been fed up with them for a long time too. Sure, some of the optimization targets are on our side, but we still need the boss to speak first. We helped them once or twice at the beginning, and they started acting like we were there to wipe their asses for them… So I might as well take this chance to give them some attitude."

"Huh? I thought you said the reason we're not helping is that we suddenly lost so many people and don't have the manpower?"

"Did you ever see those people actually work before they got laid off?"

The director let out a cold laugh. "On the contrary, we had to waste extra manpower 'mentoring' them. No matter how we taught them, they never got it. When we gave them tasks on their own, we still had to babysit and clean up their mess afterward…"

Sounded like the director really had been holding a grudge against the bloated headcount for a while.

Red Glasses frowned. "Then why are we still recruiting interns?"

At that, the director rubbed his temples. "Didn't I use 'the department's too empty and we can't spare people to help HR' as my excuse? HR went and filed their own request to bring people in to do the grunt work for their optimization project."

"Huh?" Red Glasses was surprised. "They're recruiting for our department and they didn't tell you, brother-in-law?"

The director shook his head. "They probably sensed something. Since it's just a few college students coming in to intern for a couple of months before they leave, I'm not going to bother with them."

Even though the director brother-in-law was now nodding along, Red Glasses still felt aggrieved.

She also felt mentally exhausted. A round of layoffs, and behind it was someone using another's knife to kill; hiring an intern, and behind that was sneaking troops through a hidden passage.

Nothing was ever simple.

"Why are you suddenly so interested in the intern business?" the director asked.

Red Glasses wrinkled her nose, still not done being mad on his behalf. "I was thinking if we do have an intern, could I be the one to mentor them…"

"Sure." The director nodded.

"Huh? Isn't this someone foisted on us by HR? I don't want them." Red Glasses blinked. "Oh, I get it. You want me to trip them up and teach the HR department a lesson?"

"That's not it."

The director cut off his little sister-in-law's wild imagination.

"Last night… I got two calls within ten minutes. Both from friends. One said the intern's his junior from school, the other said she's his niece… Basically, they both want me to look after her a bit."

Red Glasses' expression changed instantly. So it was another one with connections.

Wait, wasn't she one herself?

"The main thing is, after I got those calls, I asked for the intern's file and looked through it. Out of all the candidates, she actually is the best one."

"If it was some useless nepotism case, I definitely wouldn't bother." The director explained, "But if someone gets past the bar on their own merits and then uses connections just to avoid being dragged down, then it's no big deal for us to keep an eye on them."

Recalling the resume and interview notes he'd seen, the director smiled. "Who knows, she might actually be more professional than you when it comes to doing the work. You'll just be helping her get familiar with the current situation here, and after that you might be the one learning from her."

Red Glasses clicked her tongue at that, thinking he was exaggerating way too much. She'd at least been grinding in the workplace for two years already—how could she lose to a student who was still in school?

"I was planning to assign someone to guide her anyway. Since you're interested yourself… we'll go with that."

The director straightened up a bit. "Didn't you say you had an even more important question? What is it?"

As soon as he asked, Red Glasses couldn't help glancing at the office door—though there was no need. She'd locked it after coming in, and the soundproofing was good.

From a body language perspective, this unnecessary move showed that the topic to come was highly sensitive.

"Brother-in-law… I heard from my sister that you've been talking to other companies lately, planning to jump ship?"

The director's face hardened immediately. "Your sister told you that?"

"It's just… she kind of overheard you on the phone, so she wanted me to sound you out, you know, indirectly."

Red Glasses gave an embarrassed look. "But you're too sharp, there's no way I could fool you, so I figured I might as well just ask straight."

The director snorted, annoyed. "What did your sister say?"

"She asked me to talk you out of it. She doesn't understand why you'd want to leave…"

By this point, Red Glasses was much more cautious than when she'd first walked in, and a lot more reserved. "I mean, the company's about to go public, right? And you've got shares too. They say once it's listed, all the founding staff will see their net worth skyrocket and hit financial freedom…"

Her voice grew softer and softer, until it was almost inaudible by the end.

She ended up with her head lowered, eyes raised, blinking up at the department director.

The director stared at his assistant for a moment, then shook his head. After thinking it over, he said, "Your sister isn't wrong. The company is about to go public, and once it does, even I could be financially free. But—"

He gave a small laugh. "How many companies nationwide line up to go public every year, and how many actually make it?"

"If we succeed, great. But if we don't—just because a leaky boat might make big money if it reaches shore, I can't go down with it out of sheer stubbornness, can I?"

Red Glasses blinked and quickly understood what he meant.

So this company was a "leaky boat"?

She almost blurted out her surprise, but on second thought, her brother-in-law was the company's legal director. What didn't he know about the company?

If he said there was a problem, there had to be one.

"I'm not saying I'm definitely jumping ship. I'm just lining up a backup plan." The director shook his head. "I've got numbers for several headhunters, and quite a few friends have reached out with offers."

As he spoke, the director took out an employee badge and handed it to his little sister-in-law. "This intern's senior, and 'uncle', are among those 'friends' of mine."

Red Glasses looked down. Her first reaction was surprise at the photo on the badge—a face that seemed to radiate sunlight on its own, making you feel good about them at first glance.

"Xia Tian?" Red Glasses read out the name on the badge.